


Far Fleet's Passage

by Tel



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Gen, Old Earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-22
Updated: 2011-03-22
Packaged: 2017-10-17 05:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/173159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tel/pseuds/Tel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duv knows his mother's ship is out there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Far Fleet's Passage

There was a Komarran fleet in orbit.

Not that he could see it through London's light pollution, but it was there. Seventeen ships, the news said. It had been flagged for his attention last week, but he hadn't realized they meant a _Komarran_ fleet.

Duv Galeni looked up at the cloudy sky and wondered if his ship was there too. His mother's ship, the one she'd begged him to claim before she died. His father had sold his ships to their cargomasters for funds, and the cargomasters had taken the deal readily. Of course they had. Were they not Komarrans? What more could they desire than a ship and a rich cargo and the liberty to trade as they wished?

So many ships had never come home after the Conquest . They numbered more than the ships that stayed, and the Revolt and minor defections had only swelled their number. They didn't stray closer to Barrayar or Cetaganda than this, but they were his people in exile. The wealth of a planet, beyond any conqueror's reach. Bound by kinship, fed by refugees. Nomads, now.

The fleets paid a little interest on the balance due their original owners, for formality's sake. But he would have to go to them to claim it, and any dealings with the Far Fleet were treasonous, by Barrayaran lights. Of course, by their lights, everything was treasonous. Suspicion had already fallen on him. He wasn't sure he could escape it. Was it worth escaping?

He had no illusions. Prime Minister Vorkosigan talked a great deal about integration, but he had no intention of giving up the slightest bit of control over Komarr. Fear, not love, held the planet to him - Vorkosigan couldn't back down. Not for a hundred lives or a thousand or a hundred thousand. A point of honor, perhaps, the sort of Vor honor that counted other people's lives like nothing.

Duv was a historian. He'd gone into this with his eyes open, knowing it a careful gamble. If twenty years down the line Komarrans were still locked out of a meaningful role in Imperial politics, if twenty years down the line the Barrayarans were still sending five warships to watch four freighters... he might be able to make a difference.

 _You don't have a future on Komarr, David,_ his mother had said. _Not while the Butcher lives._

"It's not Komarr that needs me, mother," he whispered. "It's Barrayar. Barrayar needs to change."

Prime Minister Vorkosigan couldn't do it himself. The transformation needed was too radical, and like Ser Galen, he could not see his own fanaticism. But perhaps, one day, it could be done despite him.

One day the deaths would stop, and the fear would stop. And maybe, one day, his mother's ship would come home.

**Author's Note:**

> Historically speaking, it's one thing to conquer a nation. It's something else again to conquer its merchant marine. Ask the Norwegians about that one.


End file.
